Abstract
We tested whether analogical processes can be harnessed to help children learn in a complex, naturalistic learning situation. Specifically, we asked whether a brief analogical training experience could help children learn a key principle of stable construction—namely, the idea of using a diagonal brace to stabilize a structure. The context for this learning was a free construction activity in the Chicago Children’s Museum, in which children and their families built a model skyscraper together. The results indicate that even a single brief analogical comparison can confer insight, and add to evidence that structural alignability processes underlie analogical comparison.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Analogy |
Editors | Boicho Kokinov, Keith Holyoak, Dedre Gentner |
Publisher | NBU Press |
Pages | 175-182 |
Number of pages | 8 |
ISBN (Print) | 978-954-535-580-6 |
State | Published - 2009 |